I also think his immediate reversal is an action taken in good faith to demonstrate he is on the same page with the fiat of woman.

When the Holy Father said we all need to listen to women because they can see things men can't, this is a shining example. And he did respond.

There are still several problems here and they are not insignificant problems.

1. The two-year history of ridiculing, rebuking, penalizing faithful Catholics while shilling for the goodness in adulterous relationships that has just got to stop.

"Stop breathing on my fur!"

He knows how to be careful with what he says. It's time to stop the off the cuff remarks. He knows his stream of consciousness is not orthodox by nature. It's time to give them ice cream on the plane without talking about theology.

2. He owes the pregnant woman he rebuked an apology.

3. He's given the world the idea that NFP is the approved-approved method of birth control.

Technically, this could be argued when a mother's life is in danger, but if there is the extremely rare genuine case where a pregnancy is killing the mother, the Church does not penalize the woman if the pregnancy is terminated.

We don't promote this as a valid Church-approved abortion.

See the theological and pastoral problem with the spin on contraception?

TTC readers are not going to like what I have to say about this one, but it could be we could hijack this and get women off of the pill and into using NFP.

Think about this for a minute.

The reality is, most contraception use is about the inability to afford a child. Most people are exaggerating their financial situation to delay a family, but there are some legitimate cases. If we were to jump on this to get women into good NFP programs that teaches the distinction, more good than harm would be brought to bear from this booboo.

Why not? Every mistake made by the Holy See gets put into full throttle into catechesis. Let's play the game.

4. He's got to stop appointing apostates.

5. This is the most important one: He has to teach moral theology and encourage priests to do the same.

While we have a captive audience, any other suggestions?

I wanted to post today's optional readings for the Memorial of St. Agnes. They are speaking to us. Having trouble finding them. the USCCB site, unbelievably, does not have them.

3 comments:

On the reasons (excuses?) for not being able to afford more children. Certainly worldly prudence would suggest that parents plan ahead considering current and potential future income, cost of college and all that. How sensible all this is? What good parenting, how envirormentally conscious, etc. Who could argue with this?? Well, such a worldly vision is not Gods. He demands faith which means we are to depend on him. Our experience with having 11 children was that none of them were planned and afordabilty was never considered. Our idea was that if God gave us the kids he would give us a way to pay for them. And I have to say it worked out that way. Of course, most folks will say this is madness. And I guess it is. Faith in God is a kind of madness. Try it some time and see how it works for you.